I only have 62 years left on my lease in Great Shelford. I am keen to extend my lease but my freeholder is can not be found. What should I do?

If you qualify, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can submit an application to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will mean that your lease can be lengthened by the Court. However, you will be required to demonstrate that you or your lawyers have done all that could be expected to locate the freeholder. On the whole a specialist may be useful to carry out a search and prepare a report to be used as proof that the freeholder can not be located. It is wise to seek advice from a conveyancer in relation to proving the landlord’s disappearance and the vesting order request to the County Court overseeing Great Shelford.

Looking forward to complete next month on a studio apartment in Great Shelford. Conveyancing solicitors inform me that they report fully tomorrow. What should I be looking out for?

The report on title for your leasehold conveyancing in Great Shelford should include some of the following:

• The unexpired lease term You should be advised as what happens when the lease expires, and informed of the importance of the 80 year mark

Details of the parties to the lease, for example these could be the leaseholder (you), head lessor, freeholder

Does the lease prohibit wood flooring?

Whether the lease restricts you from renting out the property, or having a home office for business

The landlord’s obligations to repair and maintain the building. It is important that you know who is responsible for the repair and maintenance of every part of the building

Responsibility for repairing the window frames

What options are open to you if a neighbour breach a clause of their lease? For details of the information to be contained in your report on your leasehold property in Great Shelford please ask your solicitor in advance of your conveyancing in Great Shelford

Last month I purchased a leasehold property in Great Shelford. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before completion of my purchase?

Where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. It is an essential part of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.

If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Great Shelford with the purpose of saving time on the sale process?

• A significant proportion of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Great Shelford can be avoided where you appoint lawyers as soon as you market your property and request that they start to collate the leasehold documentation needed by the purchasers’ representatives.
• If you have carried out any alterations to the residence would they have required Landlord’s permission? Have you, for example installed wooden flooring? Great Shelford leases often stipulate that internal structural changes or addition of wooden flooring necessitate a licence issued by the Landlord consenting to such changes. Should you fail to have the approvals in place you should not communicate with the landlord without contacting your lawyer in the first instance.

A minority of Great Shelford leases require Landlord’s consent to the sale and approval of the buyers. If this is the case, you should place the estate agents on notice to make sure that the purchasers obtain bank and professional references. Any bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is able to meet the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the actual amount of the service charge so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.

If there is a history of conflict with your landlord or managing agents it is essential that these are resolved before the property is marketed. The buyers and their solicitors will be reluctant to purchase a flat where a dispute is ongoing. You will have to accept that you will have to discharge any arrears of service charge or settle the dispute prior to the buyers completing the purchase. It is therefore preferable to have any dispute settled prior to the contract papers being issued to the buyers’ solicitors. You are still duty bound to disclose details of the dispute to the purchasers, but it is better to present the dispute as over rather than unresolved.

You believe that you know the number of years left on your lease but it would be wise to double-check via your lawyers. A buyer’s conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the remaining number of years is under 75 years. In the circumstances it is important at an early stage that you identify whether the lease term requires a lease extension. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your property on the market for sale.

All being well we will complete our sale of a £475000 flat in Great Shelford in 5 days. The landlords agents has quoted £300 for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and 3 years statements of service charge. Is it legal for a freeholder to charge an administration fee for a flat conveyance in Great Shelford?

Great Shelford conveyancing on leasehold flats typically necessitates fees being raised by freeholders :

• Answering pre-contract enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Great Shelford
• Supplying insurance information
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your solicitor will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Great Shelford leasehold property is £350. For Great Shelford conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide answers.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Great Shelford - Sample of Queries Prior to buying

What is the length of the lease? It is important to be aware whether fixing the lift or some other significant cost is pending that will be shared between the leasehold owners and may well dramatically increase the the service costs or necessitate a specific payment. Many Great Shelford leasehold flats will have a service bill for the upkeep of the building levied by the freeholder. Where you purchase the property you will have to meet this charge, normally quarterly throughout the year. This may be anything from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds for large purpose-built blocks. In all likelihood there will be a ground rent for you to pay yearly, this is usually not a large sum, say around £25-£75 but you should to check as on occasion it could be prohibitively expensive.

Other Topics

Lease Extensions in Great Shelford